Where: Vodafone Arena, Melbourne

When: Wednesday, March 5th

Who can question the legendary status of the Chemical Brothers?

The Chemical Brothers are among the only big electronic acts from the nineties that are still producing credible dance music. After a three year absence following their 2005 Big Day Out Tour, last week they brought their live show to Australia under the theme of one of the most recent album We Are The Night.

On Wednesday, for the first time I experienced the live sensory overload that is the Chemical Brothers.

Normally, two guys standing behind laptops and audio equipment repeatedly clicking mouse buttons would not be entertaining. Certainly, the Chemical Brothers are not a “rock show”, and there is no air-humping lead singer, but they proved to be more entertaining than any rock band.

As the English duo stepped onto the stage, green lasers projected over the crowd and lit up the packed Vodafone Arena while the opening track Don’t Hold Back sent the crowd jumping with nostalgia.

The background behind them consisted of large screens which displayed a series of animated, psychedelic images for the entire show, including images such as eyeballs blinking back at the crowd, silhouettes of running men and flying birds.

The tripppiest image without a doubt was something known as ‘The Chemical Brothers Clown’, a creepy, nightmarish image of a clown with shocking dental hygiene that has graced the screens of many Chemical Brothers performances.

There was an abundance of strobe lighting to be seen, and a smoke machine that ran overtime to emphasise the laser lights. As the room increasingly filled with smoke, the Chemical Brothers created moments to break-dance to, then moments which allowed the audience to slow down and take in the atmosphere, and realise the person next to you wearing ‘fat pants’ and wielding glow sticks.

Of course, the Chemical Brothers included tracks from their new album such as We Are the Night, All Rights Reversed, and Do It Again. Despite the fact that they had a new album to flaunt, the night was seeped with nostalgia.

Long time fans of the Chemical Brothers would have been pleased to see them drop hits from their debut album Exit Planet Dust such as Leave Home and Chemical Beats, and Block Rockin' Beats was a treat for those who were there right from the days of Dig Your Own Hole.
 
There was much music from their 1999 album, Surrender, including Hey Boy Hey Girl, Out Of Control and The Sunshine Underground, which proved to be a nice conclusion to their set, as images of illuminated snowflakes blowing in the breeze projected in the background.

Certainly, Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands spent most of the duration of their set behind their equipment twiddling knobs. After all, they are producers.

It may have seemed like they were simply turning dials and pushing buttons up on stage, but no one can tweak those knobs quite like The Chemical Brothers.

Although there has been speculation over how much of their gigs are pre-recorded, as they adjusted the pitch and tweaked the synthesizers the show only went to prove that their performance is in fact, extremely live.

The Brothers from way back showed that even after 16 years they still know how to put on a mind-melting audio-visual show. The crowd was inebriated, energised and possibly epileptic from the sensory overload of bleeps, trippy visuals and ear thumping.

That, my friends, is always a sign of a great Chemical Brothers show.